As a young man Comer Cottrell Jr. got his start in business by raising rabbits, selling the meat and trading the fur. He has always been a successful entrepreneur and a man of many interests. He is not afraid of large challenges. In 1990 he purchased the land and building of bankrupt Bishop College in Dallas for $1.5 million. Then he relocated the 108 year-old historically black Paul Quinn College from Waco, Texas, to the Dallas campus, invested another $1.7 million for renovations and has pledged additional funds to cover a portion of the college's expenses until it becomes self-supporting. The college, named after William Paul Quinn, the fourth bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, opened in the fall of 1990 with 1,200 full-and part-time students and graduated its first all-Dallas class in the spring of 1994. Cottrell's firm, Pro-Line Corporation, which specializes in hair-care products, is one of the nation's largest and most successful African American-owned businesses. In addition to emphasizing biomedical sciences, Cottrell encourages students to focus on information technology and computer sciences.

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